Distance Is Important
by MaggieMerc
Summary: A brief moment between Arizona and her family after the events of 8x21. Because she is the best and super awesome and we should all acknowledge her quiet brilliance.


Title: Distance Is Important

Author: Maggiemerc

Rating: T for brief above the waist shenanigans.

Pairing: Callie/Arizona, Sofia pops in and says hi.

Spoilers: Ficlet post 8x21.

Summary: A brief moment between Arizona and her family after the events of 8x21. Because she is the best and super awesome and we should all acknowledge her quiet brilliance.

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You have to compartmentalize as a doctor. You can't grow attached to patients. Just as being good with a scalpel and numbers is vital, so is the ability to turn off your emotions. To step back. Arizona had seen a lot of potentially good doctors shattered by that prospect. That one—Izzie? She would have failed come boards time with her fervent need to connect with her patients. Or she would have gone crazy and ended up at the bottom of a bottle or in a psych ward.

Arizona though—Arizona was really really good at compartmentalizing. In her field it was vital and, unfortunately, incredibly difficult. Little kids with sad cancer eyes and weeping parents. That plucked at the heart strings and begged you to care. And to an extent Arizona did. When she was in that room delivering news she cared and when she was in the OR with a tiny body opened before her she cared. But when she went home? When the day was done and she was out of her gross scrubs and in her wife's arms lounging on the couch?

She turned away from it all. Drove it from her thoughts. When she was home she didn't think about the dying babies. She didn't think about Tommy, the little boy whose circumstances so mirrored her own daughter's. Because you can't think about that. Not when you're a doctor and not when you're a parent. You put aside the bad. File it away for the rare breakdown and you think about the good.

"You know what's great," Callie asked.

"Hm?"

"Being done with my boards forever."

"It **is** an awesome feeling isn't it?"

"And also," she nuzzled Arizona's neck and pulled her closer, "not having to be in an OR with Teddy and Owen." Arizona laughed. Callie abruptly moved them so they were lying on the couch and kissed her gently. She brushed some hair out of Arizona's face and stroked the laugh lines near her mouth with her thumb. "You doing okay?"

"I'm good." She rose a little so she could kiss her wife on the lips. "Awesome."

"Because you seemed down."

"It was a rough day." She ran her hands up Callie's arms and slipped a knee between her wife's thighs, "But I'm home now."

Callie's head dropped and she sighed against Arizona's shoulder. "That," she choked out, "feels amazing."

Arizona was slipping her hands down past the waist band of Callie's pants when Sofia waled with the mighty lungs of a kid just past a year old. Callie kissed her neck and ran a hand along Arizona's breast, "Don't," she warned her.

"She's crying."

Callie gently nipped at the hot skin where her shoulder met her neck. "Because she hears her mommies playing. Don't give into genius baby manipulation."

To pound home the point that she very likely **could** hear her parents and was determined to vagina block them Sofia grew louder.

Arizona stilled the hand rubbing amazing circles on her breast and pulled away, "That could be croup." She moved out of her wife's arms and hopped off the couch. "Or scarlet fever. She could have whatever Zola's got."

"You just want to snuggle a baby instead of your wife."

She paused at the door to Sofia's room, "I love you."

"I know."

Arizona was good at compartmentalizing. An expert at it. But sometimes. Just sometimes. It was okay to let the day life creep into the night life. Sometimes it was okay to bring her daughter into her bed with her wife and watch her sleep and be immensely grateful for the fortune she'd somehow procured.

"You let a baby interfere with sexy times you know," Callie murmured. She was nearly asleep but her eyes were still dark and curious. Watching Arizona as she stroked her daughter's hair and then gently scooted them both closer to Callie.

"I know."

Sometimes you let it in. And that was okay.


End file.
